Grand Jury To Consider West Palm Boy's Death

Once again, the state's child welfare department is enduring the hot eyes of public scrutiny following two high-profile child deaths.

It's a familiar occurrence in Florida -- most recently striking Broward and Miami-Dade counties as well as the Orlando area.

Now it's Palm Beach County's turn.

The county's State Attorney's Office acknowledged this week it soon will convene a grand jury to examine whether the Department of Children & Families did enough to prevent the death of 2-year-old Joshua Saccone of suburban West Palm Beach.

The little boy had come to the attention of child abuse investigators in Palm Beach County in April.

He died in August from a severe skull fracture.

DCF District Administrator Paul Brown said on Friday that professional incompetence may have led to both Joshua's death and that of Dylan Cassone, 4, who drowned in March, also of West Palm Beach.

Like Joshua, Dylan had come to child abuse investigators' attention prior to his death.

A review of the boys' deaths has already led Brown to demote Becky Walker, the county's family safety director.

It may soon lead to consequences for other staff.

"We will mete out the appropriate punishment for lack of professionalism as determined by the investigation," Brown said.

Dylan drowned after falling into his mother's algae-filled pool.

Authorities found cocaine in his bloodstream.

His mother, Kerry Cassone, 29, has been charged with manslaughter.

Child abuse investigators were involved with the family a few years earlier, when Dylan fell in the pool the first time.

They determined his mother failed to supervise him properly but decided he was at low risk for further abuse or neglect, state documents showed.

Joshua's case was reported to the state's abuse hotline in February, Brown said.

That case was transferred to investigators in Broward County, since that's where the boy's family lived at the time.

The family later moved to Palm Beach County. Investigators there got involved in the case in April.

Joshua died Aug. 18 after spending six days on life support.

His mother, Marguerite Saccone, 30, was charged with child neglect and failure to protect her son from her boyfriend, Lincent Chin, 27, of Fort Lauderdale.

Police, who have been searching for Chin to question him about the case, think he is in Jamaica.

"There was some feeling if we had known about [the case] right from the get-go, we might have been able to do a lot more, especially with the boyfriend," said Paul Miller, spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.

Brown said he thinks his investigators failed to follow procedure in notifying local law enforcement, the child protection team and others about Joshua's case. "That's not going to be tolerated," he said.

Ted Babbitt, a Palm Beach County lawyer who has joined a massive lawsuit against DCF on behalf of all children in foster care, said these two cases unfortunately are not unique.

"It's a question of who's watching out for these kids, and it's obvious the state is not," he said.

Jack Levine, president of the advocacy group Center for Florida's Children, said the nature of Florida's child welfare system -- with its ever-changing laws and overloaded workers -- leads to such heart-rending headlines.

"That constant `damned if you do and damned if you don't' is the life of the Department of Children & Families," he said. "Their reputation is always judged by last night's tragedy."

Nicole Sterghos Brochu contributed to this report.

Shana Gruskin can be reached at sgruskin@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6537.